Saturday, 25 May 2013

Adelaide to Melbourne - Day 8

I quite enjoyed the last night in the tent, and some wind meant it was dry and dew free in the morning. Breakfast featured a mish - mash of whatever was left from the food bag, and I was on my way nice and early. The road out of Aireys Inlet soon heads back in land and over a few small hills before hitting Torquay. Surf was up here, and it was a good place to sit and have a breather.

From here it was time for busy roads. I'd tried in vain to plan a decent low traffic entry route into Geelong but couldn't find and good information on easy to navigate options...so just stayed on the A10! By this time, I'd done 50km and also passed a trip milestone of 1000km, so stopped for some food to celebrate and to get ready for the last stretch.

To get to Melbourne from here, you either have the option of a zig-zagging series of back roads going through Lara and Little river...or heading straight down the M1 motorway, on which bikes are allowed. I've ridden those back roads a lot and it was too indirect for me today, so opted for the M1.

This turned out to be awesome...the shoulder is wide and fast and not too full of glass and gravel...I was flying down this stretch, usually between 33 - 42 km/h...helped along by that Westerly at last, and got to my turn off for home in no time! Home by lunch!

I'll do one more post later on, with trip data. Thanks for reading, and your words of support on Facebook all! Especially Carla! What a beautiful country, and seeing it from the seat of a bike makes it all the sweeter.